News
Local

CSC moves training to city

Correctional Service Canada may house the temporary site for a national training centre for correctional officers on the grounds of CSC’s Regional Headquarters on Union Street at the Correctional Learning and Development Centre.

Correctional Service Canada will open a new national training facility for correctional officers in Kingston next spring and will operate it here for at least the next three years, CSC announced this week.

It could be located in Kingston for as long as five years or even permanently.

The national training facility is currently located in Regina at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy Depot Division.

It was opened less than two years ago at a shared cost of $9 million between CSC and the RCMP. The two institutions had signed a five-year memorandum of understanding to share the Regina facility.

It was initially created to centralize and standardize the training of correctional officers in Canada. Prior to its opening, training was delivered in several regions across the country but resulted in inconsistencies, according to CSC.

The current two-storey facility features maximum-, medium- and minimum-security simulation areas, a model inmate yard and prison cells.

It can hold up to 96 recruits and 20 staff members.

Recruits also have access to equipment used in penitentiaries, such metal detectors, electronic door systems and X-ray machines.

But with the RCMP expanding its recruitment process, it needed the space at the Regina depot for training more recruits, squeezing CSC out.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, speaking in Regina on Monday, said the RCMP will see an increase in graduates of 30 per cent next year and an even higher increase the year after that. He said the force is growing to meet the demand for services across the country.

Officials of the RCMP told the Regina Leader-Post on Monday that it “anticipates an increase in the number of recruits required over the next few years and will require full use of the training facilities at its academy.”

The relocation will happen on April 1 of next year, Avely Serin, senior communications adviser with CSC, said in an email to the Whig-Standard.

“We are exploring options to permanently relocate the National Training Academy. In the interim, it is expected that the Correctional Training Program (CTP) will be delivered in Kingston for three to five years while a permanent solution is found.” she said.

Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen is naturally delighted the training facility is moving to Kingston.

“I think it’s great,” Gerretsen said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “Kingston is renowned for its ability to train and produce professionals in the correctional field.

“I think a lot of people respect the fact that having the training here makes a lot of sense because a lot of people end up working in this area.”

As for a permanent location for the national facility, Gerretsen said he will certainly try to promote Kingston as the desired destination, and the city be given serious consideration.

“We have the ability and the know-how, we train a lot of people. I know a lot of friends in corrections and we have the facilities around here to train people and it makes the most sense, at least from my perspective.”

Jason Godin, the national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, is disappointed CSC is losing the Regina facility.

“It’s a bit of a surprise,” Godin said in an interview on Tuesday. “We certainly didn’t see it coming. It’s a little disappointing in some sense because they built quite a training facility in Regina for correctional officers that we were quite pleased with.

“We’re a little frustrated because as federal correctional officers, we believe we need a permanent home to do our training.”

Godin said correctional officer recruits got consistent, centralized training at Regina and the infrastructure, such as mock cell blocks, control areas and prisoner yards, are specifically set up to train federal correctional officers.

“We’re a little shocked at the minister’s move. We understand it’s a space issue, but at the same we’ll have to see how we’re going to manage things in Kingston,” Godin said.

“We’re just saying to the minister, ‘give us a home we can train in and tell us where we’re going to be.’”

CSC has not announced where the temporary national training facility will be located in Kingston.

“We are currently exploring solutions to provide ongoing training to new recruits in the Kingston area,” Serin said.

Possible locations for the training facility could be a portion of CSC’s Regional Headquarters on Union Street, where the Correctional Staff College used to be and is now named the Correctional Learning and Development Centre.

That building currently trains CSC employees working in a variety of departments throughout the service.

“It is important for CSC recruits to have a dedicated place to learn, train and connect with others — a place that fosters confidence, pride and teamwork,” Serin said. “A centralized program provides recruits with standardized nationally consistent training. It also provides them with hands-on experience that is reflective of the situations they will face when employed in a federal penitentiary.”

CSC didn’t say how many employees will be impacted by the move, but staff have the option to stay in the Prairies region or relocate to Kingston.